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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/CDMP/20
Spatial analysis of climatic variability: a Comparative study of Potwar Plateau and
Peshawar valley, Pakistan

1
2
Shazia Gulzar , Atta-ur-Rahman
1 The Fazli Haq College Mardan.
2 Department of Geography, University of Peshawar
Correspondence: shaziaguzar70@gmail.com

Abstract
This study describes the spatio-temporal variability in climatic parameters namely, temperature
and rainfall in Potwar Plateau and Peshawar valley and especially focus has been made on
highland and lowland areas of two physical regions of Pakistan. In the present study, seven
meteorological stations were selected namely, Cherat, Peshawar, Risalpur, Tarbela in Peshawar
valley and Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Jhelum in Potwar plateau holding long time series data.
Every meteorological station owns diverse dataset in term of temperature and rainfall events.
The spatio-temporal data used in this study were collected from the Meteorological Department
of Pakistan for the time of forty-seven years (1970-2017). To achieve the study objectives
standard statistical approaches were applied. For trend detection, average values were analyzed
carefully by classifying the climate data on monthly, seasonal and annual basis to get pattern
and trend detection for the period of 1970 to 2017. The result of analysis shows that averages
of maximum and minimum temperatures of both the regions display increasing trend during
the period of 1970 to 2017. However, the total precipitation of Potwar plateau (Rawalpindi,
Jhelum and Islamabad) Rawalpindi met station show rising trend in rainfall in all seasons
except winter, which show decline in rainfall. In Jhelum met station, there is decline in rainfall
except summer monsoon period, which show increase in rainfall. Likewise, Islamabad met
station there is decrease in rainfall in all the seasons except monsoon season, which show
increase in rainfall. Same is the case with Peshawar valley, where the met stations of Peshawar
and Cherat shows increasing trend in rainfall, while in Risalpur, rainfall increased in monsoon
and shrink in winter season.

Keywords: Arima, Spatial, GIS, Remote sensing

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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